But today it's the Lakers – en masse and infirmed – who are hurting worse, hurting because they didn't become a team, hurting because their leadership failed to measure the huge risk against the minimal reward of riding Bryant in an attempt to make up for not becoming a team.

So now, a season that has teetered from the opening tip officially is ripped in two. Well done.

"It has to be sewn back together," Gary Vitti said, and truer words about a basketball team never have been spoken.

Vitti was talking about Bryant's Achilles, but the prognosis works well for the rest of the Lakers, too.

What kind of season has this been? Among the hundreds of Lakers columns that have appeared in this space during the past 10 years, none before had featured the first voice coming from the team's trainer.

A frantic, panicked push to make the postseason still might be a success, but then what? A team with no chance suddenly and undeniable has less than none.

"We're still going for No. 17," Dwight Howard insisted Saturday, the remark showing no fear but also no fact.

Sadly and pathetically, Bryant's injury came at a time when he was attempting to carry this entire franchise into the playoffs. The Lakers – these Lakers, particularly – were supposed to be better than that, supposed to be so much more equipped.

Instead, Coach Mike D'Antoni permitted Bryant to endanger not only the season but, much worse, what remains of a Hall of Fame career.

Sure, it was Bryant's idea – his instance, even – that he go 44, 46, 48 minutes a game. But isn't the coach supposed to make the decisions on playing time? If not that minimum contribution, why even have a coach?

No, we don't believe for a moment that D'Antoni has more control around here than Bryant does. It's not even close. So much of what happens with him is completely Kobe's call.

But how about trying to at least provide the slightest direction? Instead, D'Antoni's response was to publicly insist that the Lakers needed Bryant to log the extended minutes.

He even joked about it, saying that if Bryant really planned to retire after next season why wouldn't the Lakers run him into the ground now?

Well, Coach, on Friday night, that's exactly what you and the team did. You ran Bryant into the floor at Staples Center.

If Mitch Kupchak, Jim Buss or Jeanie Buss attempted to wield their influence, they did so privately and with zero success. Bryant's injury left him on crutches, but it also fractured the notion that the Lakers currently are a well-managed bunch.

"We are trying to get to the playoffs," Kupchak explained. "You cannot predict an injury ... Maybe if we had a 10-game lead going into the playoffs you can rest guys and then he wouldn't have gotten injured last night. But that's not the case."

No, it's not, and now, because of an absurd, short-sighted scramble to qualify for the right to lose in the first round, the Lakers might not have Bryant back until well into next season. And when he does return, who knows how much of the Kobe Bryant the Lakers will have?

This group started out as a who's who of NBA teams, a ridiculous collection of immense talent and past achievement. The Lakers have ended up being a whose what of NBA teams, meaning whose what is hurting now?

They've had a bad back (Howard), a broken leg (Steve Nash) and a torn labrum (Howard again). They've needed surgery on their abdomen (Steve Blake), their knee (Metta World Peace) and their hip (Jordan Hill).

They've suffered knee tendinitis, plantar fasciitis and where-do-I-fit-on-this-team-itis. And that was just Pau Gasol.

Before he crumpled for good, Bryant had been bothered by so many ailments it's just easier to inventory his body parts that weren't hurting. Let's see, eyebrows...earlobes...middle toes. Yeah, that's about it.

"If you look at our season," Vitti said, "it's been a nightmare."

On the first day of training camp, World Peace likened these Lakers to rock stars, like the Rolling Stones.

Turns out he was wrong. The Rolling Stones, medically speaking, are in better shape.

Looking back, how perfect is it that when D'Antoni arrived in November to replace the fired Mike Brown he did so on crutches?

"When you try to look at the whys, it's back luck," Vitti said. "Some of it's just bad luck."

In life, you often make your own luck. And that's what the mismanaged Lakers did this season.

They made their own bad luck and, in the process, they took a great opportunity and made a mess of it.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.